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I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international
consultants. About living in Italy, the Veneto area near Venice; in Indonesia,
central Java. Why we love the southeast of the United States and moved back from
Italy. Our love for gardening, the botanical way. Sharing with you our manifold
treasures from exotic places and even offering several in my Mariette's Back to
Basics LLC Boutique, for others to enjoy. As well as high end silver items from
Giovanni Raspini, Italy |
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I
also do classes and consulting... too much to list here! Check out my google.com/+MarietteVandenMunckhofVedderABOUT page, where you see my other LINKS and email address; you just scroll down.Thanks!

Love to
bring back some romance and quality to the daily life of others...

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Saturday, May 27, 2017

Our Pet Squirrel Eekie & Dachshund Mauzie

On November 30, 1984, on the day of my Paternal Grandmother's funeral in The Netherlands, I was cleaning windows outside with my chamois leather, here in Dublin, Georgia/USA.

Suddenly I heard some 'peeping' noise and sure enough no young birds could be around at that time of the year...

So I stepped over the fence, chamois leather in hand, and found Casey the neighbor cat chasing a baby squirrel in the garage of our back neighbors.

Scolding Casey the cat, she let go of the squirrel and I scooped him up.

This is a screenshot from an 8mm movie that is shown below...

Pieter was still at work for Campbell Soup in Chicago.

When husband Pieter did come home from Chicago, by 23:30 o'clock with his new Rollei lens, he made the FIRST Pet Squirrel Photo of 'Eekie' - Eekhoorn = Dutch for Squirrel so I created Eekie.

He was so very sweet and I got him installed in a crate with hamster bedding and food.
Pieter did build him a cage with real branches so he could exercise too.

On Sunday, December 2 of 1984 we had just come home from a weekend with friends in Atlanta. With the fire place warm and cozy, I sat with Eekie in my lap and had cracked him some pecans to nibble on.

On Sunday, January 6 of 1985, we got a kitty harness with leash that Pieter's brother had bought us.Via special courier it came straight from Horst, The Netherlands to us!
After our two special couriers went home, Pieter did make some 8mm movie segments in our office.
Me in my morning robe as to not get any pulls in my good clothing!

Here Mauzie-girl is seen with her cat-friend Casey, playing near the wood logs.

Eekie on Sunday, January 6, 1985 with kitty harness on leash in our office in the evening...

Sorry for the poor quality but you can see Eekie on my back and on the chair with Mauzie.

Eekie on the chair in our office, climbing on Dachshund Mauzie's back!

He climbs on the back of the chair and you can see him on my lap while I sit on the armrest of the chair...

Eekie our pet squirrel now is climbing all over me, on my head, in my neck and down my back.

Very funny pet!

He also loved to cuddle and getting kisses, tickling me with his fur!

As long as he was outside of his cage, he was a happy camper.

Such a cute little baby!

Oh, I would have a zoo, if they let me...

When opening a Pepperidge farm pack of Sugar Cookies (2), Eekie would climb up on you and nibble around it!

Photo shows Eekie doing just that on January 12...

Pieter with Eekie on January 13, in our veranda, just being released from his cage...

Climbing up on Pieter's pant leg...

Oh, I also did walk with him outside and he LOVED climbing up a tree on his leash and than getting back on my shoulder!

Mauzie the Dachshund LOVED to be Mama to other pets!

Once to a Guinea pig, a kitten and now a squirrel...

Eekie the squirrel loved to go 'dog back riding'...

We would walk on the driveway outside when Pieter would be coming home from work.

Such a fun duo!

We are so grateful for having these photos as all our photos from dear friend Natacha, our official house blessing on December 3rd and from Eekie on December 1st got ruined by Kodak and we received a new film roll...!

Eekie did climb up on Pieter's pant leg, and helped with writing the weekly letters to Mother Vedder,

Pieter's brothers and to his adopted daughter Liz.

Eekie is seriously proof reading!

These photos from January 13, 1985 are the LAST photos we got.

Sadly we found him dead on Wednesday morning on the 16th of January.

He'd peacefully crept inside his knitted woolen pouch to sleep and after having him for only 6.5 weeks, he was no more...

Hello Mariette, What a lovable story! Eekie seemed very friendly and intelligent. I used to have tons of squirrels and chipmunks in my large yard, and had fun watching them scamper about, but I never tried to domesticate one. Those old movies are real treasures. You were wise to transfer them, so now they can be easily shared.--Jim

Dearest Jim,Yes, those squirrels are in general all very smart and Eekie was one of them; he learned fast. My Dad did have a squirrel as a boy, they took it from its nest as a little one. Eekie however got rescued from the neighbor's cat. Guess it died 6 weeks later because of some internal injury... They can't talk!Yes, the old movies are indeed treasures in many ways. Not because of its quality but the memories.Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Marie-Thérèse,Oh, this is a treasure to have and it came almost alive again with the viewing of these old films.God knows, maybe that cat had done him some harm that we couldn't see... But he knew love that is for sure!Hugs,Mariette

Eekie was so cute. You were meant to know each other. I believe you will never look at any squirrel in the same way as you did before Eekie.

I had a pet squirrel when I was a teenager. Her name was Squirrely. She was very tame and sweet with my Mom, Dad, me, and my boyfriend (now husband). I found her when he and I were on a date at the park. We drove over her in the road before we realized she was a little creature instead of a leaf. Luckily the tires did not hit her. I told him to pull the car over, that was some kind of little animal in the road. He did. I emptied out my straw purse in the front seat of the car, jumped out, found the little baby sqiurrel in the road unharmed and put it into my purse.

I took it home. It was alive with fleas and was barely old enough to have all of its fur. we treated it with cat flea powder and I fed the little thing with milk and rice baby pablum for the first week or so. Squirrely lived in a cage in the house while she was so tiny. She used to love to come out of the cage and run on us and up over the curtains.

My Dad built a very large tubular shaped wire cage for her that had a little cedar shake house at the top of it and a long limb with branches for her to climb on. She lived several seasons in that cage that hung low from the apple tree. She liked kleenex and leaves in her cedar shake house, and believe it or not, every morning she would take the kleenex out and hang them on the branches in her cage to air out. If it started to rain, or before nightfall, she would gather them all up and take them back into her little house. She loved to be lightly sprayed with the garden hose every day in summer and loved to snack on apples. She was so sweet to the people she knew, but tried to bite those that she didn't know. My boyfriend and I got married and I moved away from home, but we decided squirrely would stay at my parents' house in the tree cage. I only lived a couple of blocks away and visited her often. She lived happily for a few years, I can't remember now how many. Then one morning my Mom woke up and looked out the kitchen window and Squirrely and her cage were completely gone. Someone had come into the yard and taken the whole setup. We always thought that it was one of the neighborhood kids that our Collie knew, because the Collie would have put up a fight otherwise. Till this day I hope that Squirrely bit the living daylights out of whoever took her and her cage. I hope she bit them until they bled the minute they reached in to grab her. I know she must have been so scared.

Anyway, later that summer, my Dad was out in the driveway washing his car. Low and behold a small, chubby, fluffy tailed squirrel came right down the tree almost right to my Dad. (Squirrely never grew to have a long body and tail),but was chubby and had a very fluffy tail and a rounder face than most squirrels. My Dad couldn't believe that it could be Squirrely, but he sprayed the hose toward the squirrel and it started playing in the mist just like Squirrely always had. Every week when he washed the car that summer, Squirrely? would appear. After a while Squirrely? brought two little young squirrels with her. They would stay nearby and watch as my Dad sprayed Squirrely? but never would let themselves be sprayed by the hose.

That was 43 years ago, and still to this day if I am visiting my Dad and see a chubby faced, fluffy tailed squirrel, I think it is probably one of Squirrely's great-great-etc grandbabies. That is why I think you will never see a squirrel again and not think of your little Eekie.

Dearest Susie,Oh, I just loved reading your extraordinary experience with Squirrely. What a sweet name, sounds also like a diminutive of squirrel, in a way I used it from Dutch. A special and loving story evolved from something sad... We loved the squirrels in our back yard of the first home in Georgia. Two little baby brothers I could call down from the tree and their Mama, who I also had tamed, let them come to me. That was so very special! They jumped onto Pieter's cap when he was filling up the feeders with sunflower seeds, or jump at his shorts out of mischievous playfulness. They also played with the water when I watered plants with the hose. Lots of lovely memories and I was oh so sad when Campbell Soup moved us to Pennsylvania as I knew I never would get such friendly squirrels living close with us again.Well, in the present home, I once again befriended a red-tailed grey squirrel. She was very tame and let me scratch her back and head. At times she jumped on the roof, via the holly tree, just to get to the balcony, looking for me... Looking inside in search of her human. I called her 'Peep'. But all of a sudden, she was gone... Like you, I've always looked at others with a trace of reddishness as being one of her offspring.Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Sami,Guess that is due to the over population in Europe where they have vanished in most areas, except for the woods.Don't know if you would not find them in Australia...?Yes, his death was a shock but who knows if he had something internally from the play with that cat...?!Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Tamago,Yes, they can make perfect pets and are very cute. But you cannot let them roam freely... That part is different from dogs and cats. Oh, Eekie was so serious in helping write letters; as if he too could read and write!Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Mariette.The Squirrels of photos Pieter like to coming home the dog back riding lots of fun time. all your photos. Pieter pants Eekie are proof writing in the lovely store. I had so much thinking of not right our area.Have a great good time!

Dearest Michiko,Oh, it was so fun to see Mauzie the dachshund with Eekie on her back, along the end of our driveway for welcoming Pieter home! Indeed a very lovely story about Eekie proof reading letters, after having climbed up Pieter's pants.Hugs,Mariette

Wow, that is so amazing my dear Mariette. You had me smiling all through those pictures and memories - what a tiny cute creature you had as apart of your family. Lovely. Sending warm hugs my friend xxx

Dearest Eli,Yes, tiny our Eekie still was, just a baby and he was of course a very vulnerable target for our neighbor's cat.You no doubt have lots of them with less population pressure of humans in Norway. That balance seems to work perfect and animals are less shy or aggressive. Hugs,Mariette

What great photos. I'm not sure they all came through as there are some big gaps between some of your text, but the pictures you were able to share are wonderful. So very sweet of you to rescue little Eekie. At least he had 6 and a half weeks of a very good life.

Dearest Tammy,Hope you got to view the videos as well, very short ones...It was my duty for rescuing this little baby! He gave us so much joy and guess we should have gone to the vet for having him checked out for internal injuries.Glad he got to know love and we gave him shelter.Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Noushka,Oh yes, you have to supervise them as they can't be domesticated like a dog or a cat.But we only let him out of the cage for play time with us or with Mauzie and that went well.I've had a rough couple of weeks but I'm fine, catching up on life again.Glad you got back safe.Hugs,Mariette

Dearest Maria Glória,Indeed those are incredible memories.Guess Brazil is too over populated as well for seeing any squirrels near homes.You bet that Eekie lives on in our hearts forever; such a special cute pet.Hugs,Mariette